Erc Starting Grants

1. Admissibility and Eligibility conditions:

The conditions specific to ERC grants are described in the ERC Work Programme 2025 under the heading 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in the ERC Rules of Submission. An overview is provided below:

Admissible and eligible proposals: All proposals must be complete, readable and accessible. They must be submitted by eligible Principal Investigators before the relevant call deadline. A complete proposal needs to include all parts or sections (see “Proposal submission and description” below). Proposals which do not meet these criteria may be declared inadmissible. The content of the proposal must relate to the objectives and to the grant type set out in the call, as defined in the ERC Work Programme 2025. If a proposal is considered not to relate to the objectives of the grant and/or call for proposals, it will be declared ineligible.

Applications where the Principal Investigator proposes to commit less time in the EU or an Associated Country, or to the project than the minimum percentages set out in the subsection "Minimum time commitment" of the Work Programme will be declared ineligible. If it becomes clear before, during or after the peer review evaluation phase that one or more of the admissibility or eligibility criteria have not been met, the proposal will be declared inadmissible or ineligible and it will be rejected. Where there is a doubt on the admissibility or eligibility of a proposal, the peer review evaluation may proceed pending a decision of the Responsible Authorising Officer following the opinion of the admissibility and eligibility review committee.

Eligible Principal Investigators: The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2025). Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality, and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. 

There are specific eligibility criteria for a Principal Investigator applying to the Starting Grants based on the date of the successful defence of their first PhD degree (or equivalent doctoral degree) as described in the ERC Work Programme 2025 (see also Annex 2 'ERC policy on PhD and equivalent doctoral degrees' and specific provisions for applicants holding a degree in medicine).

All Principal Investigators funded through an ERC Starting Grant must spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in a Member State or Associated Country and a minimum of 50% of their working time on the ERC project.

Eligible Host Institution: The host institution (Applicant Legal Entity) must engage and host the Principal Investigator for at least the duration of the project, as defined in the grant agreement. It must either be established in a Member State or Associated Country (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2025) as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an international European research organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), or any other entity created under EU law. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country will be deemed to be established in that Member State or Associated Country. Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations and undertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams. 

Restrictions on submission of proposals: The restrictions for submission related to the outcome of the evaluation in previous calls are designed to allow unsuccessful Principal Investigators the time necessary to develop a stronger proposal. For further details please consult the ERC Work Programme 2025, heading 'Restrictions on submission of proposals' or the Frequently Asked Questions.

Proposal submission and description:

·        The Administrative form Part A (including the Ethics Issues Table and the Budget Section) is available in the submission tool below. The budget table and the justification of the Resources are part of this online form Part A (Section 3 - Budget). For more details, please refer to section 2.3 of the ERC Information for Applicants.

·        Part B1, Part B2 and the Host Institution Binding Statement of Support templates are provided in the submission system as word-templates (they should be completed, uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as PDF files).

A complete proposal consists of the following elements (with the following page limits): 

·        Extended Synopsis: 5 pages

·        Curriculum Vitae and Track Record: up to 4 pages

·        Scientific Proposal: 14 pages

·        Resources and Time Commitment: 2 pages

·        Host Institution Binding Statement of Support

·        Ethics Issues Table

·        PhD record and supporting documentation for eligibility checking

Complete proposals must be submitted via the submission tool available through the Funding & Tenders Portal (to access the submission tool, you need to register first).

2. Eligible countries: 

The conditions specific to the ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2025 under the heading 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in Annex 3. An overview is provided below:

The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality who intend to conduc their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2025). Principal Investigators may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. Principal Investigators funded through the ERC frontier research grants shall spend a minimum percentage of their working time on the ERC project (50%) and a minimum percentage of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country (50%).

For details about the eligible host institution (Applicant Legal Entity) see section 1 above on 'Admissibility and Eligibility Conditions'. 

3. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: 

Financial capacity: Please refer to the ERC Rules of Submission, section 4, ‘Award Decision and Preparation of Grant Agreements’.

Operational capacity: As indicated in the ERC Work Programme 2025: Applicants whose proposals are recommended for funding are deemed to fulfil the operational capacity requirements provided for in Article 198(3) of the Financial Regulation. 

Exclusion: Please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2025, section ‘Prior Information of Candidates, Tenderers, Grant Applicants, and remunerated experts - registration of information in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES)’, Applicants that are subject to the administrative sanctions of exclusion or are in one of the exclusion situations set out by the Financial Regulation are banned from receiving EU grants and can NOT participate.

4. Evaluation:

The conditions specific to ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2025 under the heading 'Evaluation criterion and procedure’ and in the ERC Rules of Submission, section 3.6 The evaluation of ERC grants. An overview is provided below:

Evaluation procedure

For the Starting grant call a single submission of the proposal will be followed by a two-step evaluation. The evaluation will be conducted by means of a structure of high-level peer review panels as listed in Annex 1 of the ERC Work Programme 2025. The panels may be assisted by independent external experts working remotely.  

Evaluation criteria

For all the main grants, scientific excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. The panels will primarily evaluate the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of the research project and, at the same time, the intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment of the Principal Investigator, with a focus on the extent to which the PI has the required scientific expertise and capacity to successfully execute the project. The detailed evaluation elements applying to the excellence of the research project and the Principal Investigator are set out in the ERC Work Programme 2025. 

5. Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement:  

Please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2025 under the heading 'Indicative summary of calls from the 2025 budget'.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: 

Please refer to the MGA used for ERC actions under Horizon Europe (HE General MGA).